Use of a clinical cell flow cytometer for differential counts of prawn Penaeus monodon haemocytes

Abstract

Flow cytometry (FC) has been used extensively for monitoring human blood cell populat ~o n s and it would be useful if this technology could be applied to the analysis of prawn haemocytes. This paper shows that the Cell-Dyn 3000 flow cytometer can distinguish haemocyte types from Penaeus monodon and then describes the range of haemocyte counts within normal prawns. The total haemocyte count was 23.3 X 106 cells ml-' using a haemocytometer and 21.0 X 106 cells ml-' with the FC.